Apple bashing is so much fun it brings out the best in everyone. My goodness such vitriol if you dont like apple your free not to buy it. If it's your mission to proselytise to the heathen how big and bad apple is fine but then you need a pulpit or at least a dirty soap box. Apple bashing is passé no one cares any more.

And when the first phone was three years old I sold it for a good chunk of what it cost me in the first place, a nice plus.

This is one great plus of Apple's products, undeniably.

Drawback: you might get mugged for your iPhone but nobody wants an Android that badly.

No, you might also get knocked on the head for an S4...The other lAndroid's, the ones that no mugger would care for, are, precisely, what makes the platform strong against Apple's, why Apple is getting their ass kicked throughout the world.

Apple tells you "get this or sod off".

Actually Apple says 'This is what we have. Buy it if you want it.'

Android says: "What are your needs? What is your budget? These are the products for you".

As far as my phone (and tablet - iPad) are concerned I like the approach that keeps everything up to snuff and my apps current and tested out before I put them on my phone. Every time there's an update available for an app the phone 'tells' me on the screen with an icon and in a few seconds the one or more apps is updating. The phone's OS is also checked and kept up to date as is the iTunes software on my PC. And I will admit Apple does not write the very best PC software around but it does work.

I invest minimal time deciding which phone, what features, which this and what that.

What it boils down to is, it WORKS and does not demand much of my time or attention to stay that way. There are no iPhone apps I've heard of that had nasty stuff buried inside, since Apple checks out and approves all apps the put on their iTunes store.

As I said, I wanted a phone that did a great job for me, anything I wanted it to do, without it becoming a hobby. I have a camera that I enjoy getting into the nuts and bolts of, that is a hobby I enjoy. My phone just does a job for me without requiring me to do much to keep it up to par.

The other day, one of the most proselytizing Apple fans I know, one that is constantly referencing how wonderful his life is because of Apple, suddenly pulled a Sony Experia from his pocket.

I went "What...!?...Am I seeing right?... a SONY !?...".

His half-muttered words..."Well, I needed a dual-sim phone, so...".

So now he's got one. I am glad for the free market system where I can have an iPhone and you can have an Android.